


Black Coffee and Wikipedia Articles

by BluePandaHero



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic), Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-11 19:22:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12942009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePandaHero/pseuds/BluePandaHero
Summary: When Shadow walked into a new coffee shop to begin his usual schedule of editing Wikipedia articles for college students, he didn't expect to meet a new friend (or potential lover?)





	1. Chapter 1

Silver greeted the next customer with a smile; something he had become accustomed to. However, thankfully, it had been a slow day so it didn't seem as forced as usual. A dark hedgehog that looked like a new customer and used his retail voice. 

“Hi, sir! Welcome to Starbucks, how can I help you?” Thirty more minutes. Thirty more minutes and his shift was over and he could go home.

“Coffee. Black.” Ah. So the customer was _this_ kinda guy.

“Okay. Would you like to make it a venti or a-”

“Medium.” Silver sighed mentally. There was a size chart right in front of him.

“Okay...Anything else?” 

“No.”

“Okay…” Silver typed it into the register “That will be two dollars. Can I get your name?” Silver took the money and grabbed a cup.

“Shadow. Shadow the hedgehog.”

“Mmmkay, give me a moment and I'll have it ready for you.” and, true to his word, Silver had it ready. Silver called his name, Shadow got his drink, Silver waited for his shift to be over. 

A few minutes in, he noticed that Shadow was sipping and typing away on the computer. Was he a writer? Oh great, another one of those. Well, they were the only ones in the shop so he might as well strike up a conversation.

“So…You a writer?” Silver leaned over the counter.

“Huh? No. I'm just typing.”

“Well D’you wanna tell me what it is?”

“Why should I? I don't know you.”

“Just trying to strike up a conversation.” There was silence, then Shadow spoke.

“I'm editing Wikipedia articles.” He said with complete sternness. Silver stifled a laugh.

“What? I'm serious.” Shadow noticed and looked offended.

“No- no, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I've just never heard of someone editing Wikipedia articles in their free time.”

“Well, college students use it so I might as well make sure the information is correct.” Shadow turned all of his attention back to his screen. Silver watched him.

“I think that's cool.”

“What?”

“I think it's cool that you'd do that. Make sure all the information is correct, that is. How do you make sure all the information is something that college students use?”

“I have people that I know in college that are in different courses. I just make sure the information is right and correct it if it isn't.” Shadow continued typing.

“So you got tired of them asking you for answers?”

“Yeah.”

“Well we can't use Wikipedia as a source, what wisdom can you bestow upon others for that.”

“Use the sources in Wikipedia.”

“Huh. Didn't think of that one. Hey, are you in college?”

“No, I graduated.”

“In what?”

“Not telling.”

“Not an open book, huh?”

“Not to people I don't know.”

“Hm. Fair enough. I'm Silver, by the way.”

Shadow looked up from his screen, eying him. “A pleasure.”

“S’ all mine.” He shrugged. Time passed and they talked more. Someone else walked in, a purple cat in the work uniform. So, Silver's shift was over.

“Well, I'll leave it to you Blaze.” He looked back at Shadow, then slipped him a piece of paper.

“Thanks for the conversation! I work afternoon shifts.” He said before walking out. Shadow looked quizzically at him; did he want Shadow to come talk to him during his shifts? He looked at the napkin-

His number. Shadow blushed, muttered something, and continued his work.


	2. College

The next day Silver had begun his shift at the normal time; 12:00. It was a normal workload with the occasional angry customer that made a scene, either over an old coupon or getting the order 'wrong’. Silver watched Shadow enter. He ordered what Silver guessed would become his 'usual’; a medium black coffee, and sat down at the same table he was at yesterday. Every now and again, he'd order another and get back to work. Silver made brief eye contact with him every now and again, then continued work. Eventually, the afternoon lunch rush settled and Silver flopped into a seat. It was 1:30 PM. No one was coming back in and if they did he'd help them. Silver took a breath, stretching out in the chair, then looked over at Shadow.

“So, what do you do for a living?” Silver turned his head over to Shadow.

“Why?” Shadow picked his head up.

“Because I know that Wikipedia editing doesn't pay.” Silver stretched, the laid down on a table. Shadow was silent.

“I’m a manager at a flower shop.” The typing resumed.

“A flower shop, huh? Gotta admit, I didn't see you working somewhere like that. Where do you work? I'll come visit sometime.”

“I work in the next city over.” Shadow didn't even turn his head up, his eyes flickered from the keyboard to the screen.

“Really? Is it that popular flower shop? And why not just use the Starbucks or coffee shop over there? It's gotta be a long way.”

“I used to, but everyone kept trying to get free flowers out of me so I came over here. So far the busiest it gets is in the afternoons, right? So I can go unnoticed.”

“Hm. Pretty solid logic, honestly.” Silver sat up and shrugged.

“I know.”

“Do you do anything else?” He propped himself up with an elbow.

“No. Just bouquets and other things.”

“That's pretty cool that you can make a living off of just flowers. I'll have to stop by and get something sometime!”

“Don't you have student loans to pay?” Shadow looked over from his computer.

“Well, yeah…”

“So focus on that first.” He scolded him, then turned his attention back to his article.

Silence.

“So, what article are you working on right now?”

“Issac Newton.”

“Really? People can't even get that right? We've been learning about him since ninth grade.”

“Yeah, but sometimes people are stupid.”

“Yeah, I guess that's right.”

Silence.

“What do you major in?” Shadow, for once, broke the silence.

“Huh?”

“What do you major in?”

“Oh, uh. Game art and design.”

“Really now? Why?”

“Well...I've always really liked video games and storytelling...and I would have been a writer or a comic artist except that I wanted to tell a more interactive kind of story.”

“So you can program things?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it all the same type of programming, or..?”

“Well, depends. But I can do a little of everything.”

“Well, tell you what. I'll make you a bouquet if you make me a website.”

“Hm...Deal. I get off at two.”

“Wh- really? They have you working that long as a college student?”

“Hah, well, this is actually near a bad part of town. I walk here.”

“So you walk from your college to work?”

“Then back to college, to my dorm, rinse and repeat.”

“And you think you're gonna get by on just a coffee shop?”

“I have a scholarship.”

“Well then why work at a coffee shop for money if you said it's for college?”

“Well, I don't have full-ride scholarship. It only pays if I can get straight A’s and one of my teachers thinks people shouldn't get A’s for art.”

“That's pretty shitty.”

“Yeah. I tried to take it to the office but they didn't do anything. So, I'm stuck paying for my Junior year.”

“And Senior?”

“Oh, no. See, the weird thing about my scholarship is it pays for each year you get straight A’s.”

“...You're life is just one big cluster fuck of weirdness, init?”

“Pretty much!” Silver laughed. 

A comfortable silence.

“So you said you're in game art and design? What kind of games do you want to work on?”

“Ah- kids games.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, think about it. There are so many shows now-a-days that have a huge adult following for the message. I want to be able to bring that to video games.” Shadow watched the way Silver's eyes seemingly lit up when he talked about something he was passionate about. He trailed on and on about it, about how most games failed in that retrospect. But strangely enough, Shadow couldn't find himself minding too much. The way Silver talked about his passion what different from other people. It felt like he was being read a carefully crafted essay with different points and an explicit explanation for each. And how each point easily led to the next.

“Or...Something like that.” Silver seemed to catch himself talking for so long. “Er, sorry for hijacking the conversation.”

“Oh no it's fine, it's interesting how you explain things. How long have you wanted to work in video games?”

“Oh, forever. I-” Silver stopped himself from trailing off again. “Sorry, I almost got carried away…”

“No, it's really okay. It's interesting how you explain things.”

“Interesting how?”

“Well, it felt more like you were reading an essay to me with one point of what you love and then a whole page of why you love it so much.”

Silver felt himself blush up to the ears. “Sorry…”

“I already said it's fine, so stop apologizing.”

“I'm used to people just telling me 'Okay, okay, we get it already’ in the middle of a rant.”

“Really?” Shadow felt a twinge of sympathy that he'd learned to be ashamed of talking about things he loved.

“Yeah, but I guess I kind of deserve it.” Just then, Blaze walked in for her shift.

“Making another poor sap sit through a lecture?” She teased him.

“Making another poor sap listen to your theoretical physics?” Silver looked outside to a pink hedgehog walking past the shop.

“She enjoys my tutoring.”

“That's why she shows up everyday before your shift to flirt with you.”

“It's not flirting, I've already told you.”

“Whatever you say, lover cat.”

Silver and Blaze went back and forth as Shadow watched.

“Go to bed, Silver.”

“But finals are coming up!.”

“No excuse. Bed. Now.”

Silver groaned and stood up.

“Well, you have my number. Call me later and I'll come help you out with your website.” Silver waved to him and went back to his college dorm


End file.
